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thedrifter
07-05-04, 09:08 AM
Issue Date: July 05, 2004

The Lore of the Corps
2 wars, 2 dozen aircraft – an aviator’s varied career

By Robert F. Dorr
Special to the Times

Today, it’s not unusual for a Marine pilot to spend a 20-year career flying a single type of aircraft.
But during the 1940s and ’50s, there was more variety.

In two decades in the Corps — from 1943 to 1962 — retired Lt. Col. Gerald B. “Jerry” Dethier, 85, of Costa Mesa, Calif., logged more than 6,000 hours in at least 25 types of aircraft, though he insists his experience was “not unusual” for a Marine aviator of his era.

In combat, Dethier piloted two of the Corps’ great warplanes — the PBJ Mitchell medium bomber in the steamy South Pacific theater of World War II, and the F7F Tigercat in frozen, wintry Korea.

Earning his wings

Born in 1919 in Boston, Dethier was a student at Tufts College in 1943 when a Navy recruiter talked him into entering flight training. When he pinned on naval aviator’s wings, the top-scoring 10 percent of his flying class was given an opportunity to join the Marine Corps.

He became a second lieutenant in 1943, and his “not unusual” operational career began with an assignment to Edenton, N.C., as an instructor on the PBJ, the Corps’ version of the B-25 Mitchell. The Army version of the plane had flown the famous Doolittle raid to Tokyo in April of that year. The Marines had three PBJ squadrons fighting in the Pacific.

At Edenton, Dethier met Cpl. Suzanne Chenoweth, who worked in the control tower. Despite a rule against officer-enlisted relationships, he said, they dated and later married.

Dethier was eventually ordered to take a PBJ and a crew to the southwest Pacific. After a marathon journey, they joined Marine Bomber Squadron 433, operating from Emirau Island near Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

The squadron’s job was to neutralize Japanese garrisons that were to be bypassed by the island-hopping campaign in the south and central Pacific.

“Our targets in the South Pacific were mostly on Japanese bases like Rabaul and Cavite,” said Dethier. “Our primary job was putting the runways out of commission. The PBJ was also an effective anti-shipping weapon, but there wasn’t any shipping to speak of in that area.”

Dethier flew the PBJ-1D model — whose crew included a pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, upper turret gunner, two waist gunners and a tail gunner — and the PBJ-1J, which carried forward firing guns and dispensed with the bombardier.

He subsequently flew PBJs with squadron VMB-611 in the Philippines, and he served briefly in China before returning to the United States.

Dethier piloted about a dozen propeller-driven aircraft in the immediate postwar years and in 1946 was introduced to the F7F Tigercat. It was a sleek, powerful fighter that never fulfilled its purpose of operating from aircraft carrier decks but was a bulwark of land-based Marine squadrons.

From the Pacific to Korea

Dethier’s Tigercat squadron, Marine Night Fighter Squadron 542, went ashore in Korea hours after the September 1950 Inchon invasion and operated from Kimpo Air Base near Seoul. When allied forces crossed the 38th parallel and drove into North Korea, the squadron moved to an airstrip near the North Korean port of Wonsan.

The entry of China into the Korean War produced the epic battle at the Chosin Reservoir, where Dethier and his wingmen flew close-air support for Marines battling vast numbers of Chinese troops amid one of the coldest Korean winters in decades. With Dethier as back-seater on all 30 of his Korea combat missions was radar operator Staff Sgt. Philip Healey.

Dethier was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for a night mission in which he attacked a target in a deep valley surrounded by slopes on all sides. He and Healey made the attack on instruments, with Healey calling off altitude readings and telling him when to pull out.

After Korea, Dethier pulled duty at various stateside locations and in Japan.

He went on to fly early Marine jets, including the TV-2 Shooting Star, F9F-2 Panther, F2H-4 Banshee and F3D-2 Skyknight.

Near the end of his two decades in uniform he piloted transports, including the R5D Skymaster and R4Y Samaritan.

Dethier retired in 1962 and later worked for North American Aviation on the Apollo moon-landing program. He subsequently pursued a career with United California Bank, from which he retired in 1987.

Robert F. Dorr, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is the author of numerous books on Air Force topics, including “Air Force One.” His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@ cox.net


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-3017165.php


Ellie